If you are savvy enough to know what a Windows Home Server [WHS] is, then you may have already seen this article by Ars Technica. On the 14th of October, the posted an in depth view of WHS and how it works. You can read the article here.
I am quite impressed by Microsoft with this product, it is rather innovative and very forward looking. To offer a product that makes it easier for families or small offices to have an easy to use Back-Up solution. It seems smart, using single-instance storage, where the system only keeps a single file on copy even when that file is located across the home network. I am curious on if this means all files or just system files; thinking that a document pulled of my wife’s computer, edited, but not renamed would mean it is two separate files[?].
I like that it has centrally managed shared files and access permissions. A really nice feature is that the system requirements are low “1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, a 70GB hard drive, and a NIC [Network Interface Card] are the minimum requirements . . ..”1 This makes it easy for some one with a bit of knowledge to build their own system. One would have to buy the OS, but that is priced at about 200$. I have a feeling that my parent will end up with one in the next year or two.
I must agree with Ars Technica that additional features like Anti-Virus [AV] and Update Management are must haves for the next version of WHS. Including, unbiased AV support for products like AVG or ClamWin. Things it does not support are OS X and Linux, plug-ins could fill this gap, I am interested to see where things go.
iron wil
Notes: Ars Technica, Home is where my server is.
